Berry, 16, is accused of shooting Carl Green Jr., 30, on Oct. 16. Berry pleaded not guilty and has demanded a jury trial.

The burden of proof in Thursday’s preliminary hearing is much lower than the threshold a jury will face when it decides whether Berry is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

State law mandates that a 16-year-old defendant be tried as an adult, based on the charges.

Freeport police detective Cpl. Aaron Hass was called to the witness stand to present evidence against Berry on behalf of the state.

Hass said an officer heard several shots fired at 11:30 p.m. Oct. 16 while outside an apartment in the 300 block of Empire Street near Float Avenue. Moments later, the officer observed Berry running from the apartment complex and apprehended him.

A witness in the apartment said someone had run into the apartment, fired shots and then ran from the property; the witness later identified Berry in a photo lineup. Hass said a 9mm pistol was recovered behind the apartment and Berry’s clothing was covered with cockleburs that are prominent in that area.

Green was found in a yard near Float Avenue with seven wounds, with four that appeared to come from “projectiles,” Hass said. An autopsy showed that Green died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Attorney Mark Zaleski, an assistant public defender who represented Berry, argued that the evidence was circumstantial. While Hass was on the stand, he asked whether the witness got a good view of the man in the apartment, whether it was light or dark in the room, and what state of mind the witness was in when she supposedly saw Berry.

Hass said he didn’t have the information to answer those questions.

Zaleski said no physical evidence connected Berry to the shooting, just “one fleeting eyewitness testimony that at this point is very dubious.”

A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Dec. 19; a jury trial is set for Jan. 6.

Green’s death was Freeport’s fourth homicide of 2013. Adel Ahmed Al-Masmari was killed May 27 while working at the South Galena Avenue Convenience Store. Timothy McGraw was shot in the jaw June 30 while sitting with his daughter on a neighbor’s porch. Walter A. Scott was shot in his apartment Sept. 25.